1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a content providing apparatus and method, a content receiving apparatus and method, a program, and a content downloading system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a content providing apparatus and method, a content receiving apparatus and method, a program, and a content downloading system which allow using both television broadcasting and the Internet as a content communication path in a content download service.
2. Description of the Related Art
By the widespread use of high-speed data communication networks as typified by the Internet, content download services have already been provided in order to provide various contents as goods, such as music, movies, computer programs, etc (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-113066).
In related-art content download services, a user connects a receiving apparatus to a predetermined server through the Internet, obtains a content from the connected predetermined server, stores the content, and uses (views) the stored content at any time the user likes.
On the other hand, in recent years, in television broadcasting, the amount of information that can be simultaneously broadcast has increased dramatically with digitization. In addition to general television programs, which are watched in real time, various kinds of data have been allowed to be broadcast at the same time. Accordingly, there have been proposals for using television broadcasting for content download services.
That is to say, proposals have been made of content download services in which a content is broadcast by television broadcasting, the broadcast content is received by and stored in a receiving apparatus, and the stored content is used (viewed) at any time.